Web links for 16th February 2012

Jonathan Portes is a breath of fresh air: the Moody’s downgrade “proves nothing and signifies less.”
“The misdeeds and incompetence of the credit ratings agencies in the run-up to the financial crisis has been well documented. What is less well understood is that when it comes to rating sovereign debt, they simply do not know what they are talking about; worse than that, they do not even understand what their own credit ratings mean.”
It’s hard not to quote the whole post: “Last month, Sarah Carlson, Moody’s UK analyst, was quoted in the FT as saying ‘We talk about countries having altitude in the triple A ratings space.’ No, I don’t have a clue what she’s talking about either.”
Jonathan Portes thinks the government’s fiscal policy is wrong, but “the Shadow Chancellor should make his arguments for an alternative approach to fiscal policy on the merits of the case, not attempt to bolster them by appealing to the judgement of these discredited and irrelevant organisations. “